Hi,

Ascension on Delay

I have had the Ascension Series for almost two years now, yet I have not put it out for exhibition.

Why, you ask?

It had the look and the messaging I was aiming for, and most importantly, the feeling I was searching for. However, because it was part of my experimental pieces, there were technical flaws that I simply could not ignore. I was told by a papier-mâché expert that adding salt to a flour-paste mixture was enough to prevent mold. While that may be true, other references and mentors made me realize that this method was simply unacceptable if I wanted the series to be archival.

And so, I held back. I stored the pieces away for a while, only using them for photoshoots and keeping them for sentimental reasons, as they were the very first batch of the series. The stubborn bull in me insisted on taking my time to prep this series, refusing to release it until I was absolutely certain of its durability.

The Lesson Found

While that process is still underway, this experience has taught me how deeply I value quality and my own instincts. It also showed me how much time I squander by waiting and feeling things out until the "truest" time for them to emerge. Hopefully, now that I am older, I won’t do that as much. To be completely honest, I was lagging behind instead of locking in. At this stage in my life, I need to be more serious, and I guess that is one of the beauties of aging.

The ideas that have stayed with me the longest have taken root deep within my heart. Meanwhile, the ones that merely occupied my time without truly resonating with my soul have already withered and died. The ideas I hold onto now have stood the test of time, proving themselves worthy of my energy, focus, soul, and practically my life.

Moving Forward

I have plenty of artistic plans for this series—something I am genuinely looking forward to building. The fact that my interest and curiosity haven't wavered only proves that this was exactly what I was meant to do. Besides, I need to put this out into the world because the other projects in my mind are starting to pile up.

Exciting times are coming.

STRUGGLE TO FIND FORM

For months now, I have been on a constant clearing on my vision and on how I wish to present it to the world, and I may have perhaps spread myself too thin on some side projects that I have lined up for myself; Others of which I have found enriching to myself.  Those are the ones that I have longed to do for quite some time and just now have the liberty to do them.  Not because that these are hard, but because they do not uphold the standards of how I wish to form it.  I've always been hard on myself when it comes to that.  For the most part, I have been quite laxed.  

Though it was but a small part of my creative project, it took me to a halt, and formed a huge bottleneck around it.  I just couldn't move forward.  I knew what I wanted to create, but of which form?  I don't know just yet.  I just know that this is how the universe tells me that it isn't yet time for this to be out and so I have to go find something to tinker for the time being.  And perhaps it is something that I am trying to learn.  To accept that unfolding isn't ready, and to focus on those that which are obvious, or the path to least resistance, as they say.  

ARTIST UPDATE

The main intention for this post is really to update you on what I have been doing as an artist.  The moments of not actively creating Ascension art, are moments of creating on some other forms of art like poems, podcasts, and other forms that are equally tedious if not as satisfying when done.   Much of my time was spent on studying as well.  I have developed an obsession to understanding energy and form and how it is made and manipulated.  I've read on physics, esoteric, and I've also found some interesting stories on the ancient world, the rituals that they did, the science and technology that they had, that ancient they may be, cannot be duplicated by the modern technology or may have already been, we were just not aware of such.

I've also grown fond of alchemy.  When I created Ascension, I didn't think of alchemy at first, it was only when I realized that the colors I plan to use in the series, describes a number of stages of alchemy and in essence the story of Ascension is an alchemic story, and so it just makes sense for me to know about this mystical side of science.  

I have only scratched the surface and I may not be able to go through that rabbit hole, but by having a firm grasp of the fundamentals are already enough material to let you understand everything.  

THE CURRENT FOCUS

The very reason for this research is to answer the question:  Will there be a possibility for people to unite?  Unity has already taken my artist statement.  My life's work have and will be revolving around this word.  And for me to answer that, I have to understand the fundamentals in spirit in order to figure out whether or not it is possible.  

I'll have a lot of projects in line that I'll have to keep under wraps for now.  But I have spilled some beans here and they are all over the place much like what I feel with all the projects I am doing.  Nevertheless, life had been more interesting and I guess that's what is more important.

THE STORY BEHIND THE ASCENSION SERIES

This art project of mine started with my intent on creating art that inspires, art that brings light, positivity, and unity.  Part of my art journey, was me understanding myself, my values, aside from my creative tendencies.  It is by leaning into these did things become clear to me.  

• I wanted art that reflects my value and things that are important to me
• I wanted it simple yet powerful
• I wanted it to have a theme and within that theme, I can do whatever I want creatively

In 2018, is when Ascension arouse.  I took aesthetic inspiration from a pin on Pinterest and I knew the moment I saw it, that it was something I wanted to recreate.  This is when the series took final form. The image is set, but creating it myself is another set of challenge.   I've had to experiment on using different types of medium.  

Within the 7 years, I was on and off with my art.  I didn't see it as a way for me to play, but it was almost a burden for me to act on it.  So it took me so long to really get serious with it.  Researching on techniques, and using compounds that give me the aesthetic that I'm going for.  It was a long and dragging process.  Sometimes I would forget about it for months, and would come back to it again whenever I feel that elusive need to put the art out there.  But something about year 2025 gave me the fire to really pursue this seriously and materialize it.  It was just time.

Like any endeavor, there are some steps that I knew I should take, and despite knowing, there's still a big portion of this path that is still unknown and that makes it scary and exciting at the same time. Despite that, I know that if I'll just do what I need to do, and fulfill the vision in me to the best of my ability, then I can say that I'll be the happiest. 

THE VISION

There was a steady unfolding of ideas through the years.  It wasn't something that came to me at one go.  For some reason,  from working with clay and iron oxides, I knew that I leaned in the colors black, white, gold, and red.  At that time, there wasn't any story yet.  Just a collage of color themes that I was going for.  At first, I was even open to blue, but I stripped it down to the original colors intuitively.  The story of Ascension had always been paired with transformation.  So I gave story behind these colors, with white, a transformation from glory to glory, black, from depression to drive, and red from rage to redemption.  I've wanted it to be 3 as that for me, is a magic number.  However, I knew I had to work with gold as well.   So I came up with the story on Alchemy.   

The more I got into it, the more that alchemy came up.  When I read about it, it came to me that the narrative could also fit my art.  But basically for me, Ascension is a story of transformation from these 3 feelings that we go through as humans - feeling of elation, depression and rage.  Through this, I wanted to emphasize how same we are, that we all go through this intimate and universal process of transformation. 

Hoping that under this light, we are open to reach out and collaborate with each other to create a thriving world.  This is something that I feel most needed especially during this time when we are faced with a lot of threats.  Together we can survive.  Together we can create something better for ourselves and the world - that's the vision.

FIRST FILM I MADE

My first film made was for my self intro and my Ascension series.  There were several things that I did different in this.  While editing and splitting videos on canva, gave the final film a bumpy and skipping effect which I actually have grown to love.  I like how imperfect and raw it is, just like the dub I did.  It was only one-take and I went with it as I feel like it has the rawest emotions.  And since I didn't rehearse it and I allowed myself to yap away with only general outlines in mind, it ended up to be unpolished, imperfect, and in a way, cringy.  I decided to remove my voice and stick with the subtitles.  I realized that by doing so, I allow myself to be out of the film, and let the readers read my words.  This enables them to engage with the work more, and I feel like that's how I wanted it to be.  It makes my words become their words and through that they can have a more intimate experience with the art.  

ASCENSION

Rising to higher levels

climbing to higher heights

We soar to higher consciousness

we sour to higher beingness

as humans we are divine

as we strive to seek our higher purpose

we aligned to the greater role for us in this universe

PS: The statue is a paper machet made from scrap papers and scrap wood, painted with acrylic paint.